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Hystoria Jasonis Thessaliae Principis de Colchica velleris aurei expeditione

Print
1563 (printed and published)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The artist who designed this print worked as assistant to the Italian artist, Rosso Fiorentino, at the French royal palace of Fontainebleau. The most clebrated interior at Fontainebleau was the Galerie Francois I, named after the then king, which featured fresco paintings set into elaborate plaster frames. This black and white print translates this idea into a form which was both much more affordable and portable, and thus enabled the influence of Fontainebleau to travel right across Europe.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Hystoria Jasonis Thessaliae Principis de Colchica velleris aurei expeditione (manufacturer's title)
  • Jason and the Golden Fleece (generic title)
  • Medea slaying her own children (plate 25) (popular title)
Materials and techniques
Engraving on paper
Brief description
Engraving from Hystoria Jasonis Thessaliae Principis de Colchica velleris aurei expeditione, by René Boyvin after Léonard Thiry; Paris, France, 1563. One of 26 plates in a bound volume. Medea slaying her own children (plate 25).
Physical description
Medea slaying her own children (plate 25). Jason appears just as Medea is stabbing one of her children, the other lying dead. One of the Erinyes crouches at Medea's feet. In the top right corner, a chariot drawn by two dragons. The main picture is depicted within a rectangular ornamental frame composed of swags, masks, cupids, etc. One of 26 plates in a bound volume; a pictorial illustration to the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece. The volume includes a title page, preface and 6 pages of text in Latin.
Dimensions
  • Volume height: 23.9cm
  • Volume width: 33.8cm
  • Page height: 23cm
  • Page, approx width: 32.7cm
  • Platemark, average height: 15.9cm
  • Platemark, average width: 23cm
Styles
Marks and inscriptions
B. (Artist initial, lower centre within frame.)
Historical context
Plate from a series of twenty-six prints relating the myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece, engraved by René Boyvin after Léonard Thiry. Each scene is framed by an ornate border, thus reproducing the model given by Rosso Fiorentino in the Gallery of Francis I at Fontainebleau. Léonard Thiry, of Flemish origin, was one of Rosso's best assistants, as his salary at Fontainebleau, and Vasari's comment on him suggest.

The set was published in Paris in 1563, in both Latin and in French, and it was preceded by a letterpress text including a privilege, a dedication to the king, and four pages on the story of Jason written by Jacques Gohory. In most editions, we also find quatrains by the same poet, printed in a cartouche, and used as captions for each plate. Thanks to the privilege and dedication, we know that it was Jehan de Mauregard, an officer of the Crown, who had this set made in order to present it to the young Charles IX. The album kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum is an impression of the Latin edition and misses the poetic caption, as well as the numbers that seem to have been added in a second state. It is therefore very probable that it belongs to the first state, except for the last print. Indeed the 26th plate is numbered and must belong to the second state. The V&A also keeps scattered prints of this set: see E.2019-1908 to 2028-1908, 26595 A to 26595 F and E.88A-1891 to E.88B-1891.

All but one of the original drawings have survived. Twenty-two of them are kept in Leiden (Library of the University) and the other three are in Paris (Ecole nationale superieure des Beaux-Arts).

Medea, driven mad by Jason’s betrayal and wishing to punish him for it, killed both children she had had with Jason.
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Summary
The artist who designed this print worked as assistant to the Italian artist, Rosso Fiorentino, at the French royal palace of Fontainebleau. The most clebrated interior at Fontainebleau was the Galerie Francois I, named after the then king, which featured fresco paintings set into elaborate plaster frames. This black and white print translates this idea into a form which was both much more affordable and portable, and thus enabled the influence of Fontainebleau to travel right across Europe.
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Boyvin, René and Leonard Thiry. Hystoria Jasonis Thessaliae Principis de Colchica velleris aurei expeditione: cum figuris aere excusis, Earumque Expositione... Paris, 1563.
  • The French Renaissance in Prints from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Los Angeles, 1994. p. 309.
  • The French Renaissance in Prints from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Los Angeles, 1994. p. 466.
  • Zerner, Henri. Thiry, Leonard. Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press, 2005.
  • Osborne, Harold /Jordan, Harold Fontainebleau in Hugh Brigstocke, ed. The Oxford Companion to Western Art. Oxford University Press, 2001. Grove Art Online. Oxford Universiry Press, 2005.
  • Robert-Dumesnil, A.P.F. Le peintre-graveur français. Paris, 1835-71. vol VIII. p. 44, no. 63.
  • Zorach, Rebecca. Blood, milk, ink, gold : abundance and excess in the French Renaissance. Chicago & London: University of Chicago, 2005. 314 p., ill. ISBN 0226989372. pp. 158-188 and 271-275.
  • Robert-Dumesnil, A.P.F. Le peintre-graveur français. Paris, 1835-71. vol VIII. p. 37, no. 39.
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design & Department of Paintings, Accessions 1920, London: HMSO, 1922.
Collection
Accession number
E.2478-1920

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
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